New Delhi, December 2: Sunil Arora took charge as the new Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) on Sunday. The newly appointed CEC succeeds OP Rawat, who demitted office on Saturday. Arora was appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner by President Ram Nath Kovind recently, but a formal notification announcing his appointment was not issued. According to reports, his name was cleared by the Centre and sent to Rashtrapati Bhawan in November.

With the change in authority, the Election Commission will now hold the 2019 general election under Arora. The appointment of the new CEC comes at a time when the Election Commission is in the midst of conducting assembly elections in five states comprising Rajasthan, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.

It must be noted that a CEC of the Election Commission can have a tenure of six years or hold office till the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. The convention is to appoint the senior-most election commissioner as chief election commissioner.

Arora, 62, is a 1980 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre. He had been the Information and Broadcasting Secretary and is the senior officer in the election commission. He was also the Secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. The newly appointed CEC has worked in ministries and departments such as Finance, Textiles and Planning Commission.